Don't Question Their Patriotism: Positive News From Iraq Could Cause "Problems" For Democrats, Says Democratic Whip Rep. Clyburn

They're rooting for America so goshdarn hard it hurts.

In fairness, he's talking about tactical positioning and such, but one can't miss the basic admission that good news for America is bad news for the Democratic Party.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Monday that a strongly positive report on progress on Iraq by Army Gen. David Petraeus likely would split Democrats in the House and impede his party's efforts to press for a timetable to end the war.

Clyburn, in an interview with the washingtonpost.com video program PostTalk, said Democrats might be wise to wait for the Petraeus report, scheduled to be delivered in September, before charting next steps in their year-long struggle with President Bush over the direction of U.S. strategy.

Clyburn noted that Petraeus carries significant weight among the 47 members of the Blue Dog caucus in the House, a group of moderate to conservative Democrats. Without their support, he said, Democratic leaders would find it virtually impossible to pass legislation setting a timetable for withdrawal.

...

Many Democrats have anticipated that, at best, Petraeus and U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker would present a mixed analysis of the success of the current troop surge strategy, given continued violence in Baghdad. But of late there have been signs that the commander of U.S. forces might be preparing something more generally positive. Clyburn said that would be "a real big problem for us."

If there was some caveat to the effect of "Of course, this would be wonderful news for the country," the Washington Post reporter seems to have forgotten to write it down.

Thanks to.... sorry, I saw it in a thread, forget which one.

posted by Ace at 08:44 PM

| Access Comments